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Relativistic quantum chemistry involving heavy atoms

  • The Quantum World of Molecules
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A Correction to this article was published on 06 October 2018

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Abstract

Quantum chemistry is nowadays a term referring to a wide set of theoretical frameworks and models mainly relying on non-relativistic quantum mechanics. While, in most cases, the picture of the molecular structure and of the chemical reality provided by non-relativistic quantum chemistry is appropriate, we live in a universe with a finite speed of light. While neglecting variation of mass and velocity in the interaction of electrons and atomic nuclei is often safe, this is no more the case when heavy atoms are involved. In the present paper, we will briefly review the most rigorous way to include relativity in the modeling of molecular systems, that is to use the full 4-component (4c) formalism derived from the Dirac equation. Specifically, we will review the implementation that has been carried out in an effective 4c code called BERTHA. A recently developed method to gain deep insights into chemical bond is also presented and discussed in the 4c Dirac–Kohn–Sham context, the so-called natural orbitals for chemical valence/charge-displacement analysis.

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Change history

  • 06 October 2018

    In the original publication, second author’s name was incorrectly published as ‘Leonardo Belapassi’. The correct name should read as ‘Leonardo Belpassi’.

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Acknowledgements

We thank MIUR and the University of Perugia for the financial support of the AMIS project through the program “Dipartimenti di Eccellenza”. LS thanks University of Chieti-Pescara for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Chimica, Biologia e Biotecnologie, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Via Elce di Sotto 8, 06123, Perugia, Italy

    Matteo De Santis & Francesco Tarantelli

  2. Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche c/o Dipartimento di Chimica, Biologia e Biotecnologie, Università degli Studi di Perugia, Via Elce di Sotto 8, 06123, Perugia, Italy

    Leonardo Belapassi

  3. Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie Molecolari, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche c/o Dipartimento di Farmacia, Università degli Studi ‘G. D’Annunzio’, Via dei Vestini 31, 66100, Chieti, Italy

    Loriano Storchi

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  1. Matteo De Santis
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  2. Leonardo Belapassi
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  3. Francesco Tarantelli
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  4. Loriano Storchi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leonardo Belapassi.

Additional information

This contribution is the written, peer-reviewed version of a paper presented at the International Conference “The Quantum World of Molecules: from Orbitals to Spin Networks”, held at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome on 27-28 April, 2017.

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De Santis, M., Belapassi, L., Tarantelli, F. et al. Relativistic quantum chemistry involving heavy atoms. Rend. Fis. Acc. Lincei 29, 209–217 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12210-018-0706-7

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